Skating Rink
by CookieTower
Summary: "That is not a pool of water. That is a pool of ice." -Rin takes Haruka to the pool for his birthday! But, were they really at the pool?


It took a lot to make Haruka go along with anyone's plans. If it were too troublesome for him, he would state his position on the matter before he is dragged into it by force. However lately, he has been pulled into things far too smoothly quite often, it unnerved him. If there were some sort of compensation for his troubles, then he may consider being dragged along. Of course, he does take part in some of them if he was truly interested. He wouldn't think twice if it were an extremely sensitive matter that he cannot ignore—that is, if it involved anything he held near and dear to him, he cannot and will not stay out of it.

But then, if one were truly human, there are some things that you cannot resist no matter what you do. It was what people called their guilty pleasure, but most people won't freely disclose what theirs was.

Unless, of course it was completely obvious that there was no need to ask what it was. Haruka couldn't help it. He loved water and swimming. Why should he hold himself back now when there was no longer anything shackling him?

Thus, when Rin invited him out to visit a "pool", he did not hesitate to go.

Now, arriving at the said "pool", he just wants to abandon the guy right here and refuse to talk, see, and listen to him indefinitely.

"Rin," Haruka began, keeping a steady glare at the direction of the other boy. "Didn't you say there was a pool?"

Rin did not notice the glare—rather, _pretended _not to notice the glare and off-handedly replied, "Yeah, and?"

Haruka glared harder. "There is no pool."

"What're you saying?" The other boy laughed, and grinned at Haruka, "There's a big one right in front of you!"

Haruka turned his head away in irritation. "That is not a pool of _water_. That is a pool of _ice_."

"Don't be so picky," Rin complained. He stretched his arm to pull Haruka closer and argued, "It's still the same water; just in a different phase."

Haruka shrugged the arm off and spat, "I can't swim in that." He pushed away the other boy's body and started to walk away. "I'm going home."

"Well, I never said we were going swimming." Rin retorted, and quickly took hold of Haruka's arm. "Come on, don't go!"

"Melt that ice, then I'll stay."

"Oy, Haru. Don't ask for the impossible." Rin deadpanned. "This is a skating rink. How can you skate on water?"

"How can you swim in ice?" Haruka snapped back.

A beat of silence passed and Haruka took the moment to start glaring at the other boy again. Rin did not back down though, and held his arm firmly, and dredged up a glare of his own. Seconds seemed to pass like hours as they continue to defend their respective points using only their eyes. The two boys ignored the murmuring of awkward onlookers and allowed a few minutes to run out before one of them broke the silence.

"Listen, I already paid for our passes and skates." Rin began, "I'm not going to let you waste my money; there's no refund."

Haruka tried to shake the hold off of his arm as he replied, "This is your own doing. Let go, I'm leaving."

"Haru, you do realize what I'm doing this for, right?" Rin sighed, "You should be thankful when someone does this for you."

"I would rather you buy me some mackerel." Haruka murmured, losing a bit of his edge upon Rin's implication. "Besides, you didn't have to do anything…"

"What are you saying?" Rin offered, letting go of the arm in favor of using it to pull Haruka closer by the waist. He ignored the small squeak of protest and added, "Of course I'd do something. It's your birthday."

Haruka faltered and averted his glare. He mentally cursed, he was being dragged along again. He had yet to figure out how all these people managed to manipulate him like so. However, he knew that part of the reason why he chose to go in the first place was because he knew that it was for his birthday. There was no better reason for it, as it really was his birthday today. Normally, most people would try to utilize their gifts at least once when they were given, after all.

But, that did not mean that he had to do the same.

"Enough," Haruka insisted, breaking away from Rin's hold. He turned and, once again, started to walk away. "I'm going home."

And, once again, Rin quick grabs hold of Haruka; this time wrapping both of his arms around the retreating boy.

"I'm not letting you go, damn it!" Rin roared, as he pulled Haruka back to their previous location—that is, near some benches around the entrance to the actual rink. He forced Haruka to sit on one of the benches, and leaned in closer. "Do you have something against ice or something?"

"No…" Haruka murmured, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

Rin continued, "Then, do you have something against skating?"

Haruka tensed, but did not reply to the question. Instead, he kept his gaze away from Rin and kept his face expressionless. This was a disaster. Honestly, why did this person ever think that bringing him to a skating rink was a good idea? He may have had a profound connection with water, but that was not necessarily true for _all _states of water.

This was definitely not going well for Haruka.

Rin watched and observed his body movements very closely. He may have looked a tad nervous at the moment because the other boy seemed to have noticed. Rin smiled broadly in amusement, as if he had learned something interesting. Haruka steeled himself, as he knew there was no way Rin was going to pass this up.

Rin leaned in close. Haruka noticed the sudden lack of distance between them, and his cheeks flushed faintly. Rin grinned even wider.

"Haru, could it be that you don't know how to skate?"

Haruka's faint blush turned darker. "That—of course I do!" He stammered, "I just—I just couldn't stay up for long…"

Rin lost it, and laughed. "What's the difference?" He emphasized, and pulled Haruka up from his seat. Haruka still wouldn't meet his eyes, but he did protest as Rin held him close.

"Oy, don't be shy now." Rin teased, and smiled softly. "It can't be helped, I'll teach you."

"Shut up, you don't have to."

Rin just brushed it off with a laugh. "Don't be like that, this is my gift!" He beamed, "A day at the skating rink and free skating lessons. It's a steal!"

Haruka harrumphed and stubbornly looked away. It was not that he was bad at skating. If he had the time to practice, he knew he would be good at it. But, he liked swimming more so his skating skills were just not polished (or so he liked to think). However, he has been letting it slip his mind for awhile now but, Rin was acting a bit differently today. He sounded and acted quite open about his feelings for some time now; not at all like he was usually.

Perhaps the occasion made him act like this. That, or he just liked teasing Haruka a lot to drop his guards so casually.

As he let his thoughts wander, Haruka's eyes caught sight of the people moving around the rink. All of them moved as if it were natural to glide on ice. Skating looked so delicate and beautiful from here. A tinge of envy struck him, but that faded quickly. He fixed his gaze on one skater; this one he noticed was a bit unstable as he skated. In a heartbeat, the skater lost control of his movements and slipped, and fell flat on his back.

Haruka flinched. That looked painful, and awfully humiliating. He was not risking his dignity when there was a big chance that he would fall down.

"What, are you scared of falling?"

Haruka snapped out of his thoughts. He felt a hand firmly take his, and he reluctantly turned to look at Rin. He saw a warm smile across the other boy's face, and blood rushed right back into his cheeks.

"Don't worry, I won't let you fall." Rin swore, and gently squeezed Haruka's hand. "I won't let go of you, don't worry."

Haruka was at a loss for words. He did not expect his boyfriend to say these. It seemed he underestimated just how much of a romantic this person was. Haruka looked down to hide his embarrassment.

"Don't—don't get carried away." He finally said.

Rin laughed. "It's fine, it's your birthday anyway."

* * *

...

**A/N: **Hello! Here I am with another story for Free! And RinHaru. _Makakarating rin tayo sa MakoHaru baling araw_. As always, please forgive any errors in grammar and spelling! I'll get to them eventually.

This was also written for the week long countdown to Haru's Birthday (which ended 10 hours ago for me). The page is still queuing posts, so please do visit "Haru's Birthday Bash" on Tumblr and take a look! There are really pretty works there, you'll love them.

Was there any mention of Haru's skating skill in the anime/novel? If there was and he actually can skate, I am so sorry. The truth is I don't know how to skate and I just dragged Haruka into the mess, I'm sorry baby. The one time I tried skating, I just fell on my butt more than twenty times. I couldn't sit down properly for two weeks, I'm not kidding.

Thank you for reading!


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